Jen Aniston "Needs a Big Wake-Up Call" as New Film Bombs

April 1, 2010

Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

Is Jennifer Aniston in need of a Hollywood makeover?

The star's exhaustively hyped The Bounty Hunter (with rumored fling Gerard Butler) has grossed a disappointing $38.4 million in ten days -- a slight improvement on 2009's Love Happens, which made less than $23 million overall. (Management made only $935,000.)

The problem, Hollywood insiders say, is Aniston's outdated persona that pits her in one romantic comedy after another.

"Aniston just can't play the good friend anymore," an anonymous film critic snipes to the New York Post. "She's aged out, no matter the yoga and the highlights. She just can't do America's sweetheart next door. She needs a big wake-up call."

The critic adds that her "taste in men" is "totally off...She's missing a common-sense gene."

"It's hard for any TV stars to make the transition to movies," one movie producer tells the Post. "Certainly no one else from Friends made it."

The producer suggested that Aniston break out of the romantic comedy genre and go for an action movie like Angelina Jolie. "You can't go from Friends to Transformers," the source quips. "Jennifer is just like one of 15 princesses from Great Neck we met at summer camp."

Perhaps the 41-year-old actress will learn some new tricks. She recently told British Harper's Bazaar "the last five years have been about spring cleaning for me." (She and Brad Pitt split in 2005.)